Remember, that first of all she is my child.....

Remember that she is, first of all, my child.

Let me see her smiling in her sleep and let me think about how beautiful she is...

and not about how delayed that smile was in coming.

Help me not lose sight of my daughter in the shadow of her limitations...

I know that you care for my child and that you work hard with her.

I need your expertise to help her become all that she is capable of being.

You need my help in understanding who she really is and in following through at home with things that are important.

Remember, though, that you send her home at night and have weekends off and paid vacations.

Let me have the luxury of having a vacation, sometimes physically,

sometimes just emotionally, for a day, a week, a month, without your judging me.

I will be there for her when you are long gone.

I love my child with an intensity that you can only imagine.

If on a given day I am tired or cross with her, listen to me, lighten my burden, but do not judge me.

Celebrate with me, rejoice in who she is and who she will become...

but forgive me if from time to time I shed a tear for who she might have been.